17. OH, HOW I'VE MISSED YOU

So I've decided to get back to reading On Writing. It's my favorite of the three, and I really missed it. As of now, I am officially at the part where Stephen King actually talks about WRITING. (I'm not saying I didn't like his mini autobiography; I really enjoyed it!) I haven't read a lot yet, but I learned some pretty intersting stuff. Writing/reading is like telepathy: from the author to the reader. At first I didn't get it, but the concept was very thoroughly explained and it actually makes sense. I also learned that writers should have some kind of "toolbox." I didn't really understand this metaphor too well either, but I get it now. Here's some of the "tools" I've read about so far: 1) Vocabulary. Don't write long sentences if you can write short ones. Don't use big words if you can use something smaller. This really helped me because I tend to write some pretty long sentences. But it's hard for me not to! I guess I'll try to stop. 2) Grammar. You have to know the parts of speech and what makes up a sentence. That's easy enough to remember, but I've always been horrible at grammar. So I hope I learn some helpful stuff this year! I wrote a lot more than I was planning to. Darn.